Farming

Haley Dawn Fauste, a eighth grade student at Harrison County Middle School, has earned a position on the Kentucky state/provincial National Junior High rodeo team and will be traveling with fellow teammates to Gallup, N.M., June 23-29, to compete at the ninth annual National Junior High Finals Rodeo (NJHFR) in thebarrel racing, pole bending, team roping and ribbon roping goat tying competitions.

At the 2012 State Fair, the Harrison County Land Judging Team was named the 2012 KY State Land Judging Team.
The four members of that team are Joseph Bush, Justin Barnes, Tommy Vallandingham, and Austin Bradford.
Bush has been a member of the Land Judging Team for nine years and also earned the fourth highest individual score at the Kentucky state competition.
Barnes has been a member of the team for five years, Vallandingham a three-year member, and Bradford was competing for the first year, with all individuals receiving a blue ribbon.

I value the guardian behavior of our animals as one is charged to protect the other.
We have house cats that are free to go outside; barn cats that mostly hang out in the garage; a companion red heeler mutt who rarely leaves my side; and a Maremma livestock guardian dog (LGD). Baxter, the LGD, has challenged our thinking in owning dogs.
He has reinforced that animals follow their instinct above all else.
He is not a pet, rather a worker that is a critical component to keeping our farm alive.

The Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission unanimously elected Harrison County farmer Brian Furnish as its new chairman at the close of its meeting on Thursday after Agriculture Commissioner James Comer stepped aside in compliance with Senate Bill 50, industrial hemp legislation that is set to take effect at the end of the month.

This year several farmers are doing a great job of rotating corn fields to soybean fields. No-till is an excellent practice because we take care of weed and disease problems with crop rotation. Only one problem, someone forgot to tell the slugs.
The residue from last year’s corn crop is a perfect environment for slugs to live and thrive while consuming young soybean plants for their evening meal. While we continue to have moist and cool conditions, slugs will continue to thrive.

On Sunday, June 2, the Harrison County Heritage Council, a sub-group of the Harrison County Historical Society, held its first annual Tea at Ridgeway (aka The Handy House) with guest speaker Christopher L. Starr of Boston, Mass.
Starr, the third great -grandson of Ridgeway’s original owner and builder, U.S. Congressman Col.William Brown, made the trip to Cynthiana in hopes of encouraging the growing support for the structure’s restoration that has increased over the last year.

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) will continue to accept SURE applications for 2011 crop losses through June 7, 2013. The SURE Program provides payments to producers when crop revenues are less than the crop guarantee.
For more information call the Cynthiana FSA Service Center, 103 Rodgers Park Dr., 859-234-2646.

Area dairy goat breeders will celebrate Dairy Goat Awareness Week with the American Dairy Goat Association, www.adga.org during the week of June 8-15.
The Northern Kentucky Goat Breeders Association will sponsor an information booth and free goat cheese tasting at the Harrison County Farmers Market, Flat Run Veterans Park, on Saturday, June 15 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. You are invited to come taste the goat cheeses of Susan Miller’s Bleugrass Chevre. For information call Margaret Arnold at 235-0348.

I absolutely do not approve of killing bees. In fact, we are in a bit of a crisis with a diminishing population with the suspected cause being the use of pesticides, notably neonicotinoids. I do not fear bees, I am not allergic, and I can happily co-exist…..except that they are eating my house! Or, rather they are tunneling into the wood that makes up my house so they can lay eggs and have lots of babies.